Intervention for Dyslexia - The British Dyslexia Association

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2 or
above
2b or
above
W 1 2c 2b 2a 3
accelerated progress
all completed programmes
Figure 7. Performance profiles of accelerated progress children and all children who completed
Reading Recovery programmes in KS1 reading National Curriculum assessments in 2004-05
The figures reveal similar patterns of performance across the two cohorts (and the same
patterns are found also in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 data, which are considered later in
relation to all-England Key Stage 1 National Curriculum assessment results in 2006 and
2007). In each cohort, over 80% of ‘accelerated progress’ children achieved Level 2 or
above – but this fell to 72% of all children who completed programmes (i.e. both
‘accelerated progress’ and ‘progress-referred’ groups).
Accepting that children enrolled into Reading Recovery were the lowest performing
children in their classes, these results appear commendable, with 7 out of 10 children
enrolled in and having completed the programme achieving Level 2 or above. However,
when we look at percentages achieving Level 2b or above, the picture is less rosy, with
just over 50% of ‘accelerated progress’ children and 42% of all children who completed
programmes achieving Level 2b or above. That is, only 4 out of 10 children enrolled in
and having completed the programme achieved Level 2b or above; 30%-33% of
‘accelerated progress’ children and 24%-30% of all children completing the programme
achieved Level 2c. In addition, a further 17% (2003-04) or 15% (2004-05) of
‘accelerated progress’ children and 31% (2003-04) or 28% (2004-05) of all children
completing the programme achieved Level 1, or working towards Level 1.
In order to address the question of whether Reading Recovery puts children ‘on track’
for becoming independent readers, it is necessary to examine the characteristics of Level
1 and Level 2c readers, and, in particular, to consider how well developed are the word
recognition skills of children at these stages, given that these are the skills that will
mostly determine the likelihood of them becoming independent readers. The descriptors
for National Curriculum assessment reading levels are shown in Table 12.
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